Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork

Mike Huckabee

One doesn't expect diet books from the governors of Southern states. But that's exactly what one gets with Mike Huckabee's *Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork*. Well, perhaps "diet book" isn't quite the proper term. Huckabee is not talking about getting thin through dieting here; he's talking about the same thing doctors have been telling us for years, that changing our eating and exercise habits is what will ultimately lead us to good health. While the book does certainly have its shortcomings (anyone advocating "the size of my fist" as a realistic portion size in twenty-first century America has, simply, lost touch with reality), Huckabee puts forth common sense in a way that most people can understand-- to the point where I'm rather confused the Republicans haven't kicked him out as a traitor yet. (If it happens, Governor, we Libertarians will be happy to have you.)

The most important thing Huckabee does here is put forth the idea of starting small and working your way up. The ludicrous idea that you have to work out for a certain length of time in order to get any positive benefit is nowhere to be found. Instead, Huckabee suggests starting with slow walking for twelve minutes. I can hear fitness gurus and authors of fad diet books shrieking in agony now at the very suggestion that one might get positive benefits from twelve minutes of slow walking, but that such a thing could be helpful to a completely sedentary person should be obvious to any thinking human being. And that's what's ultimately worthwhile about this book-- Huckabee wrote it for thinking human beings.

I never thought I'd be saying "recommended" about a nonfiction book by a Republican that was written after the time of Calvin Coolidge, but there you have it.